Networks, such as local area networks (i.e., LANs) and wide area networks (i.e., WANs, e.g., the Internet), enable a plurality of nodes to communicate with each other. Nodes can include computers, servers, storage devices, mobile devices, PDAs, wireless telephones, etc. Networks can include the nodes themselves, a connecting medium (wired, wireless and/or a combination of wired and wireless), and network switching systems such as routers, hubs and/or switches.
Recently, users and networks have become mobile. For example, aircraft now have local area networks (LANs) that are communicatively coupled to the Internet via access points (e.g., Connexion by BoeingSM). As an aircraft moves, the mobile local area network accesses the Internet via different access points. Since the mobile LAN can change its point of attachment to the Internet, its reachability remains unchanged.
Due to the mobility of computer devices and networks, new protocols have evolved to accommodate this mobility. For example, mobile IP enables the forwarding of traffic to mobile users. Mobile IP uses a home agent at a home network and remote agents in remote networks. When a user accesses a remote network, a remote agent notifies the home agent, which then forwards traffic to the user at the remote network.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) currently has a working group developing a network mobility (NEMO) standard for mobile networks, i.e., a MRTP. The IETF NEMO document entitled “Network Mobility Support Requirements” is hereby incorporated by reference and referred to hereinafter as the NEMO document. In contrast to Mobile IP, NEMO will provide continuous network connectivity not only to a mobile router (also referred to interchangeably as a gateway) but also to the nodes behind the router, thereby preserving the networking topology as the mobile network moves. The NEMO document proposes that each mobile network have a mobile router that maintains a bi-directional tunnel between the mobile router and a corresponding home agent. All traffic is directed to the home agent, which then forwards the traffic to the mobile network's current access point via the bi-directional tunnel. Similarly, all traffic sent by the mobile network is directed to the Internet via the home agent via the bi-directional tunnel.